January in GME: When Nothing Feels New and Why That's Exactly the Moment to Reset
January arrives with a lot of promise.
New calendars.
New planners.
New goals, at least in theory.
But in graduate medical education, January rarely feels like a clean slate.
Recruitment is still underway. Rank lists are taking shape. GME offices are deep in meetings with HR, IT, Employee Health, and Compliance, talking once again about onboarding residents and fellows for the upcoming academic year. In some departments, these conversations feel oddly new, even though the process has been repeated for years.
The days are long.
In many places, it’s dark and cold.
And nothing about the work feels particularly “fresh”.
So what if the New Year isn’t about something new, but about something more intentional?
What If We Borrowed a Personal Practice for Institutional Work?
At the start of a new year, many of us set personal intentions.
Not grand declarations.
Not five-year plans.
Just small, human commitments:
Drink more water.
Be more present.
Let go of what isn’t working.
We do this knowing we’re human. Knowing perfection isn’t the goal.
But in medical education, we rarely allow institutions the same grace.
Instead, we default to timelines, checklists, and compliance. We plan onboarding as a task to be completed, recruitment as a cycle to survive, and the academic year as something to manage, rather than something people actually have to live inside.
What if we paused and asked a different question?
What if we set intentions for the upcoming academic year?
January is Already the Planning Season
Whether we name it or not, January is when decisions that shape July are already being made.
How onboarding will feel for new trainees.
How fragmented or coordinated the process will be.
How many systems residents will be asked to navigate on day one.
How much information will be repeated, or missed entirely.
This is also the moment when the same frustrations quietly resurface:
“Why is this so confusing every year?”
“Didn’t we talk about fixing this last time?”
“We’ll clean it up later”.
Later rarely comes.
From Goals to Intentions
This isn’t about adding another strategic initiative.
It’s about naming a few small, meaningful intentions. Ones that acknowledge both the operational realities and the human experience of training.
Examples might look like:
This year, we will make onboarding clearer; even if it means doing less.
This year, residents will know who to call before something becomes a crisis.
This year, we will stop assuming silence means things are fine.
This year, we will fix one process that everyone complains about but no one owns.
Small intentions.
Real impact.
Why This Matters More Than Big Plans
Burnout doesn’t come only from long hours.
It comes from friction.
From confusion.
From feeling like no one thought about what this would actually be like.
Culture isn’t shaped by missions statements. It’s shaped by repeated signals.
How prepared people feel on day one.
Whether systems work as promised.
Whether feedback leads to change or disappears into process.
January is a rare moment when reflection and planning overlap. It’s a chance to be honest about what isn’t working and to commit to improving it in ways that are actually achievable.
A Different Kind of Reset
The academic year doesn’t start in January.
But the tone for it often does.
What if, instead of asking:
What do we need to get done?
We also asked:
What do we want this year to feel like for the people moving through it?
Sometimes the most meaningful resets aren’t loud.
They’re quiet.
They’re intentional.
And they start long before July.
Closing Reflection
January doesn’t have to feel new to be meaningful.
It can simply be the moment we decide to do one or two things differently on purpose.
And in medical education, that kind of intention can change more than we realize.